What do Major League Baseball, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Toys R Us, and Aeropostale have in common? You probably won’t want to know the answer if you’re a regular online shopper or visitor to these sites. That’s because they are among the very worst at protecting your password and online security!

Consumers like convenience and technology thrives on their desire to make life easier. When a task is seamless and simple, the rewards tend to outweigh the risk in the eyes of the consumer. Keep reading to learn why security should never take a back seat just because it might seem inconvenient!

The Federal Trade Commission has new tips to help people deal with email and social networking hacks, whether it’s lessening the chances of a hack in the first place, or recovering from a hack once it happens.

But in case you don’t think hacking can happen to you — check out the following statistics from our friends at the Identity Theft Resource Center. You’ll be shocked to learn how many private records have been compromised since the ITRC started keeping track in 2005!

While there is no way to completely prevent identity theft from happening to you, there are many ways you can minimize your risk. Keeping this goal in mind, the Identity Theft Resource Center developed these 10 ID Theft Protection Tips to help you protect yourself from identity theft.

Read on to discover what steps you can take to step your identity safe.

When WiFi users complain about getting hacked on their home networks, it’s often the result of their own careless wireless behavior — everything from using simple passwords to outdated security. But a new study reveals that home WiFi users aren’t the only ones responsible for some very serious wireless security problems. Thirteen of the most popular home and small office routers have critical security vulnerabilities that could create major risks to users — risks that are out of their control.

Find out which routers you should watch out for and what you can do to protect your online security.

Let’s just admit it: the passwords we use online are not very good. And we probably use the same one over many different online accounts.

Maybe you have had your accounts hacked in the past (who among us has not had their Facebook account hacked?), or maybe you haven’t, but it’s good to remember that our online security is only as good as our weakest password. Read on for information on “brute force” hacking and more tips to implement today.

Are you one of the millions of people who rely heavily on the cloud-based features of Dropbox and Evernote?

The two services make data available no matter where a user is located, but the programs are apparently not safe from the same kind of hacking and data breaches that afflict banks, schools, and every-day consumers. Click to find out what kinds of breaches recently affected both companies.

Recently, Robert Grimes published an article on InfoWorldthat detailed the most likely reasons that we end up being a target for hackers. Click to find out the top four reasons he identified — and learn the top ways to keep your sensitive online information safe and avoid becoming a victim of a hacker.

Q: “My home wifi network uses the WPA (WiFi Protected Access) security protocol, which I’ve always been told is virtually hack-proof. I’m wondering how hard it would be for a dedicated hacker to break into my network. Could a hacker actually do that?”

A: Almost all home wifi networks these days use WPA or WPA2 for their security protocols, which have long been considered to be the best wifi security available.

However, Dan Goodin recently published an article in Ars Technica that detailed how, with the right tools, he was able to crack his neighbor’s WPA protected wifi network. It’s pretty sobering stuff.

You might have noticed some disturbing security news last week: Yahoo reported that over 450,000 email usernames and passwords were stolen from the company’s databases by hackers and posted on the file-sharing account Pastebin.

Apparently Yahoo had stored these usernames and passwords without any encryption at all, making it very easy for hackers to steal them.

While having one’s email account hacked is bad enough, the news is actually worse than it sounds. Many of the hacked usernames and passwords were identical to those used in other website accounts, such as PayPal or online banking accounts.

Cybercriminals are stealing user names and passwords so they can access online trading accounts directly. Then they’re using that information to make unauthorized trades, wiring the profits to other banks before their victims notice. Do you know the tell-tale signs of online trading fraud? Find out how you can avoid becoming the next identity theft victim when you trade online.